The fret board of a guitar, for example, is normally used as a some sort of switching device and the strings are used as triggers for initiating specific notes or groups of notes in accordance with the fingerboard switches. The instrument may have on board electronic micro processing unit/s, a scanning device for fingerboard switches and synthesizer and/or MIDI compatible output. Some devices include an internal amplifier and a speaker that allows one to play the instrument without an external audio system.
Other devices allow the player to create chords by simply plucking and strumming allocated string and pressing the fret as set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 5,121,668, issued to Segan et al., Jun. 16, 1992. Such devices, although useful, cannot produce natural sounding chords, when played in the desired sequence of the strings, or strummed or finger picked.
In order to reduce the loudness of the sound of the strings when used as a triggering device, many of the existing designs employ mechanical means for string damping made in a form of soft rubberlike foams or gel contacting strings directly near the bridge. A typical arrangement is discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,956,962, issued to Fields, May 18, 1976. These dampers can significantly reduce the audio output of the vibrating string. The disadvantage of such devices is that having mechanically damped the string, its normal oscillations are distorted and have to be recreated by the electronic means for producing appropriate pitches.
The wired fret concept for creating a switching fingerboard is also well known from the prior art. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,635,518, issued to Meno, Jan. 13, 1987, having segmented frets with resistors installed between the frets along the string with strings used as ground wires is disclosed. There also are designs employing resistive strings and frets scanned in a specific manner that allow the determination of an exact position of the finger on the fingerboard, and the operation of an electronic micro processor.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,398,585, issued to Starr, Mar. 21, 1995, provides a guitar having a switch placed along the neck. In other cases, the switches are placed beneath the strings, so when the string is depressed the switch goes on such as that described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,033,351, issued to Nomura, Jul. 23, 1991. Some switches change their resistance under the pressure of the finger in order to emulate different velocities of the MIDI signal or the variation of other parameters. These concepts are set forth in U.S. '585.
The use of switches creates difficulties in playing the guitar, especially applying bar chords. Further, these instruments cannot be played as a normal acoustic or electric guitar.
One of the earliest attempts to create a simple fingering device for chord creation was the Guitarola. This included a mechanical device attachable to a guitar neck above the strings. Using just one finger, the player could create a variety of chords predetermined by the design. This device was generally difficult to use and it offered a limited number of chords. In addition, the guitar required tuning on a regular basis.
There are also devices known from the prior art which provide an audio signal by means of internal speakers. In view of the limited space and weight considerations for these devices, speaker quality normally is severely compromised with concomitant degraded sound quality.
Also well known are electro-acoustic guitars which allow one to play in a normal acoustic mode or with an external amplifier-speaker system. These guitars do not offer electronic chord creation by fret depression means for reproducing a sound in the electronic mode.
The present invention addresses all of these issues and provides for a significantly improved device.